Golfers always expect to encounter a hazard or two as they make their way around a golf course.
Trees, rocks, water, sand and, down South, even alligators.
On the 13th hole of Pound Ridge Golf Club, a new course designed by renowned architect Pete Dye and still under construction off High Ridge Road near the New York-Connecticut border, is a boulder about 100 yards or so off the tee. But this isn”™t your everyday boulder; this one”™s the size of an English cottage. A golfer won”™t be able to see the pin from the tee.
It”™s all part of the Dye dynamic to keep golfers challenged. But novices need not be scared off; Dye has incorporated multiple tee boxes ”“ five placements for each hole ”“ to let golfers choose the degree of difficulty.
Construction of the course is expected to be completed in late November, said Todd Leavenworth, club manager. Then the 172-acre course that runs 7,154 yards from the back tees will remain untouched until spring for final shaping of the contours. It”™s expected to open next summer. The total construction cost was not disclosed.
It will be marketed as a destination-type golf course. “So that takes you out of normal, high-end daily fee courses you see in the area,” Leavenworth said. “A lot of people would put us in the same light as Whistling Straits, Kiawah Island, so we want to market ourselves as a destination … we want to advertise around the country, even around the world. We want to set it up so people can come into Manhattan or the local airports. We”™re going to set up things with local hotels and take care of them and maybe package things … we definitely want everyone to play this course from around the country.”
While it will be marketed as a high-end daily fee course, Leavenworth said a fee has not yet been determined, but “we anticipate that we”™ll be $200-plus for a round of golf.”
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Drive for success
Westchester resident Ken Wang”™s family bought the property nearly 30 years ago as a place to play. But as tennis found favor over golf, fewer people visited the course and it fell into disrepair, reducing its play to nine holes. Not wishing to see the land developed for housing or other uses, Wang, whose sister is fashion designer Vera Wang, decided to take on the daunting task of creating a new golf course, what he characterizes as “a course for the ages.”
But in addition to wanting to create a prestigious course, Wang also wanted it to be available to all, not just a moneyed few who could pay the high membership fees of private clubs. He cited the region as rich in world-class country clubs, but said high-end public courses are lacking.
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“I think what swayed us was that this kind of property it would be a shame to make it something less than it could be. It was driven by a sense of what was appropriate for the property and by my desire to use Pete Dye.”
Dye started life nearly 82 years ago and picked up the golfing career from his father who designed a nine-hole course on the family farm in Ohio. He not only worked on the course, he played on it as well. It paid off; he won the Ohio State High School Championship. But when the United States entered World War II, Dye joined the U.S. Army, serving with the 82nd Airborne Infantry.
College and marriage followed and he split his life as a golfer and insurance salesman. But design kept tugging and he plunged in headlong, along with his wife, Alice. They built their first nine-hole course south of Indianapolis and the rest is golf-design history. His older son, Perry, became part of the team along the way. There are 131 national and 17 international courses with the Dye imprimatur, including PGA West Stadium Course in California, The Players Club at Sawgrass in Florida and Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.
The course in Pound Ridge, the first in New York state and the Northeast designed by Dye, is utilizing environment-friendly methods that Dye introduced at the Kampen Course that serves as an open-air lab for the turf grass program at Purdue University in Indiana.
The grass for the fairways and tees is L93 Bentgrass, which is disease and pest resistant and needs fewer pesticides, according to club literature. To get around the extensive wetlands, wood bridges were built. The club features a closed water system: four irrigation ponds are fed by artesian wells and drainage water. Each pond has a liner to guard against leaks. Total volume for the four ponds is estimated at 22 million gallons.
In addition to obvious recycling, the club has a cart and equipment pad washing area. The grass clippings and water are collected and separated in a sump and the solid materials are distributed on the roughs; the water is filtered and used repeatedly as wash water.
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Prep work on par
For club manager Leavenworth, the time between now and opening doesn”™t mean he can just lie back and watch the grass grow.
“We want to bring in a young, very energetic staff. We want to give somebody a great experience here. Something they”™re going to remember when they leave here and tell friends about.”
To reach that end, Leavenworth has been busy lining up vendors from food and beverage to temporary facilities ”“ the clubhouse won”™t begin construction until after opening day so a double-wide trailer will be used ”“ to a mobile kitchen and “high-end, black-tie rest rooms.”
Not building a clubhouse immediately is “the norm for the business,” he said. “Very few people after building this size golf course put the clubhouse in at the same time.”
Leavenworth did his college internship at Shipyard Golf Club at Hilton Head Island, S.C., where he became a golf pro and then came up to Raritan Valley Country Club in Bridgewater, N.J. He then spent the last 12 years at Windsor Greens Golf Center in West Windsor, N.J., which is also owned by Wang.
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Leavenworth said Wang always wanted the Pound Ridge to be a public golf course. “He wanted people in this area, he wanted local people to play on it. He didn”™t want to exclude anybody and make it tough to get on.”
He said the course”™s location on the state border between two counties with big golfing demographics is a perfect spot.
“When you talk about the prestigious country clubs that are in this area, from New Jersey to New York to Connecticut, it”™s a different clientele and I think this course fits well for a lot of those people who would normally fly out to Pebble (Beach), Kiawah (Island) or Whistling (Straits). You”™re basically now going to have a magnificent Pete Dye golf course right in your backyard. Now instead of paying for all that type of airfare or lodging, you”™ll be able to drive here. Or we”™ll bring you here. It”™s a unique thing. You don”™t have a model to go off of; nobody”™s done this in this area. We”™ll be the first. We”™re excited about making it that type of golf course where it”™s a destination and people will want to travel from a long way, or local, just to play it.”
The closest Dye-designed course is Bulle Rock in Havre de Grace, Md.
Also yet to be built on the grounds at Pound Ridge is a driving range. Also, being considered is an indoor virtual golf theater that will enable golfers to play the course of their choosing when the weather is too rainy or snowy outside.
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